hi i'm new. I have just started to breed my bugies, and any help anyone can give me will be great. My bugies are called kiwi (female) and sky (male) i only brought them 3 weeks ago, i was told they were just over a year when i brought them, but kiwi's cere isnt brown yet so im worried she is to young, they have started courting though, how will i be able to tell if she is preganant ??? how can you tell there approximate age ??? and becuse she has never had chicks before, if she was say to lay 6 eggs would it be fair for her to bring all the chicks up ???

one more question is breeding bugies as hard as it sounds ???

i would be very thankful if you could help me in anyway

 

from Anna

Hello and welcome!

Can you post pictures of them? Maybe we can tell from looking at them. Depending upon the type, cere color is only reliable about 80% of the time. If they are young, they will still bond to one another and feed each other without mating. Normally they will not lay eggs without a nest box, but if you have any doubts about their ages (you think they are too young) don't give them a nest box, or keep them in seperate cages temporarily. Most people will say don't breed your hen until she is over 12 months, but I still think that is young.

As far as their approximate age, again it depends on type. Very young birds have pinkish ceres and bars that go all the way down the front of the head to the cere. They begin to molt between 3 and 4 months of age and slowly lose the bars. At about the same age, usually the iris will begin to lighten as well. Starting with a very dark grey so as you'd hardly notice it, the iris will lighten until you can see it well in an adult bird. Once they are over 7 or 8 months old I think it is difficult to tell their ages. Male birds' ceres will usually turn blue, whereas the female's will start to turn whitish around the nostrils, then turn white or tan, then finally brown when in breeding condition. But again, cere changes like I described don't always happen.

She should be capable of caring for however many eggs she lays, but there is a good chance that all of them will not hatch, so I wouldn't worry about that yet. Good luck!

Have you had budgies before?

i've returned your pm the only part i have to sort of dissagree with rainbow is about the number of eggs she can handle yes some might not hatch but do not be to disapointed if the first or evan the second round chicks die due to the hen not feeding them as it somtimes takes a couple of rounds for a maiden hen to relise what to do,looking back at my notes i think it is about 35 to 45 % lose their first round but go on to be very good parents

thank you both. Yes i have had budgies before but, i have never breed them before !!!! I will try and send some pictures of them, but im not really sure how to send them ???

 

from Anna

I'm going to ask my question here, instead of making yet another thread about breeding questions

 

If you have been here before you may have seen my post below (breeding Panic, I believe I called it) Any way I've been thinking and dreaming of breeding my two now, seeing as they love each other already and want to themselves it should be easy. My questions are:

 

Is it okay to have them in a simple wire cage?

My cage is 57cm long, 38 in height and 48cm deep. Is that big enough for them and a nest box?

Freckle (my hen) is about 5 years is this too old to start?

What sort of size does the box have to be?

do any pet stores sell them or do you have to hunt about to find one?

Can you make one up yourself?

Do you have to have the tag band on bird if you are thinking of giving then to pet stores to sell?

 

 

Arr I sure I can think up a million and one more questions I would love some answers you can PM me if you wish.

 

one more

Do problems happen often with laying eggs and such?

okay two

Does the size of the hen or **** have an affect of the size of the eggs? Freckle is smaller than Pie.

Edited July 28, 200420 yr by nerwen

Is it okay to have them in a simple wire cage?

My cage is 57cm long, 38 in height and 48cm deep. Is that big enough for them and a nest box?

yes it is okay for a simple wire cage your cage does sound a little small(although i'm use to inches so i might be wrong) you could attach the nest box on the outside of the cage so there is more room

Freckle (my hen) is about 5 years is this too old to start?

in my experiance this is old for a hen to breed but you do get exceptions

What sort of size does the box have to be?

do any pet stores sell them or do you have to hunt about to find one?

Can you make one up yourself?

my boxs are 6x6x12 deep and are all home made but in the uk you can get them male order or some petshops sell them

Do you have to have the tag band on bird if you are thinking of giving then to pet stores to sell?

it is always better to ring them then you can prove the age

Do problems happen often with laying eggs and such

i find around a third have problems with their first round

Does the size of the hen or **** have an affect of the size of the eggs? Freckle is smaller than Pie.

it makes no difference to the size of egg

okay thanks a lot for the answers, the cage in inches is 22.5x 15x 19 if that helps. I also got some book about breeding and that answered a lot too. I've always wanted to breed from my girl but I don't want to put her in danger, so I will think about continuing or not becuase of her age. But at the moment she is showing all the signs of been ready to breed, been more distruive than normal.